Issue: Principles & Processes

The past few weeks have rough: from an “eye of fire” in the Gulf of Mexico and record-breaking heat in the West to tropical storm Elsa bearing down on our neighbors in south Florida, who are already mourning.
I’ve been warding off my personal feelings of grief, anger, and despair by doubling down on local activism efforts, and recently hosted the first in-person meeting of our “Green New Deal for Durham” leadership team since COVID.
It was so nice to be with people in three dimensions. We hugged each other and ate snacks. We did not worry about frozen cameras or choppy audio or unmuting. We captured next steps on a real whiteboard. And, I also found myself hyper-aware of the limitations of in-person gatherings, after 18 months of Zoom meetings. Turnout was lower than at our virtual gatherings as folks had to sort childcare, factor in commute time, and assess their personal health risk.
COVID dramatically altered our activism, and not all of the changes were bad. Even as we dip our toes into “post-pandemic” life, the virus continues to ravage communities around the U.S. and the world. This week, we’ll share some reflections and resources to help your organization navigate post-pandemic climate advocacy.
             

You’ve likely heard all the hubbub recently, from a Dutch court holding Shell liable for climate change, to an activist investor group securing 3 seats on the board of Exxon, Chevron shareholders voting in favor of emission cuts, and BlackRock backing a BP climate resolution. While there’s plenty of discussion around how the moves could have gone further beyond “net zero“, it’s still energizing to see these powerful corporations are not immune to push back.
So it’s a great moment to dive into what we know about best practices around corporate advocacy and shareholder campaigns, so we can continue to put the pressure on! This is a topic personally close to me as I cut my teeth as an activist fighting Citibank and the Weyerhaeuser logging corporation.

Movement organizations can make various decisions to find the right balance between breadth versus depth and unity versus autonomy. This report synthesizes hard fought lessons that organizers have learned in the face of complex challenges related to organizational structure. Movement organizations need to have the breadth—the capacity to organize the masses at scale. At the same time, movements need “cadres” with deep leadership capacity in order to be able to organize strategically in the face of constant uncertainty and local complexity. Organizing also requires unity—coordination to unify our power and resources such that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, people need autonomy in order to be able to take initiative, unleash their creativity, adapt to the particularities of their context and feel agency in the movement. Movements need to develop structures of leadership and clear authority that can manage the competing demands to create unity and enable autonomy. This report provides general lessons and some specific tips to find the right balance of breadth versus depth and unity versus autonomy.